The focus right now for the Bucs is the 2025 NFL Scouting Combine, which is in full swing in Indianapolis, Indiana this week. Tampa Bay has plenty of defensive holes to fill, but that does not mean the offense can be an afterthought. General manager Jason Licht alluded to it on Tuesday, and the facts are that the unit has some key free agents.

Wide receiver Chris Godwin is obviously the biggest, but the offensive line is a room that faces a potential looming issue with several offensive linemen who could be walking out the door.

Bucs Have 3 Key Offensive Linemen Entering Free Agency

Bucs LG Ben Bredeson – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs have most of their starting offensive line secure going into next season.

Left tackle Tristan Wirfs, center Graham Barton, right guard Cody Mauch, and right tackle Luke Goedeke are all long-term pieces and form one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. Outside of them though, the room could soon be missing some key members.

Left guard Ben Bredeson, center Robert Hainsey, and swing tackle Justin Skule are all free agents. After spending the previous three seasons with the Giants, Bredeson signed a one-year deal to come to Tampa Bay in 2024. He fit right in between Wirfs and Barton, and while he remains about league-average, having him as the weakest link is a credit to the group’s strength.

There will be a market for his services, and although he wants to remain with the team, Jason Licht will have to hope he does not get out of their price range.

Regarding Hainsey, Wirfs recently confirmed that the 2021 third-round pick is all but gone as he looks to find a starting role after Barton took his job last season. Losing his gig to the first-round pick reflected more on how talented the rookie was, as Hainsey was a two-year starter and admirably filled in when Barton missed the team’s Week 6 game against the Saints.

Bucs OT Justin Skule – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

His departure would be tough as it would not just mean losing a backup center, but one of the best backup centers in the league and someone well-liked in the locker room.

Skule played a critical role early in the regular season when Goedeke missed four games battling with a concussion and later filled in for the team’s All-Pro left tackle after he dealt with an MCL sprain that forced him to miss a game. Head coach Todd Bowles was quick to commend him for how he handled it.

“The big thing, when Luke [Goedeke] went down and ‘Skuley’ (Justin Skule) had to step in, that was huge,” Bowles said. “Nobody really talked about Luke being down for a few weeks, but I thought those guys got some experience and really helped us in the end and developed some depth. Going into this year, that’s something we can hopefully build on.”

How Would Jason Licht Handle Losing Offensive Line Depth?

Bucs GM Jason Licht – Photo by: Bailey Adams/PR

With the impact of each Bucs’ offensive lineman laid out, how would Jason Licht look to overcome potential losses? A scenario where the team loses Ben Bredeson, Robert Hainsey, and Justin Skule would be problematic, as outside of the four starters, the only other offensive lineman with some promise under contract would be Elijah Klein.

Even if Bredeson and Skule return, it rewards to add depth up front every year.

Case in point – the 2024 Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles.

When looking at the Eagles’ success blueprint, the team’s offensive line has proved vital to their success over the last half-decade. Even after center Jason Kelce retired before last year, they relied on star offensive tackles Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson and shored up the interior with Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, and Mekhi Becton, one of their key free-agent signings.

Licht knows how to draft and build out a similarly stacked offensive line, having successfully found nearly a whole new set of starters over the past five draft classes. At the NFL Combine, he even admitted “[it’s a] good O-line draft.”

It is the area of every team that cannot afford to lose depth, and considering how the best teams in the NFL stockpile offensive line talent, it is a strategy that has proven to work.

Now, do not expect Tampa Bay to use a first-round pick on a big guy, no matter how fond Licht might be of North Dakota State’s Grey Zabel, a former college teammate of Cody Mauch’s and someone who impressed during Senior Bowl week in Mobile, Alabama.

It might not even be on Day 2, but it would not be surprising to see the front office invest another draft pick into the offensive line and evaluate adding a veteran into the mix. Right now, the Bucs are looking at every way to improve the roster and raise the floor from 10 wins to a Super Bowl contender.

“I don’t think it’s a secret [that] we need to get some help in a lot of areas – particularly defense,” Licht said. “It’s not as easy as some people might think. The answer isn’t always just throwing a lot of money at positions. You’ve got to be smart about it, because as happy as we are with the offense, we also want to continue to enhance there, too. We need some help in a lot of areas, which, in some ways, is exciting for me, because we could go any which way in the draft and it would help our team.”